Vaccination opportunities critical for transit’s frontline workers
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented our industry with many challenges. Through it all, the health and safety of our employees, passengers and the communities we all serve continues to be a key industry priority.
Ensuring availability and access to vaccines for our drivers and frontline staff has been and remains critical. While the choice to get vaccinated is a personal one, we must continue to do everything we can to advocate for their health and safety every day, including prioritizing vaccines for our frontline transit employees.
We have reminded these lawmakers that it is the transit operators who:
- Show up every day to bring essential workers to their jobs.
- Provide transportation to those who don’t have a vehicle or other means of transportation.
- Give passengers access to vital community services.
- Continue to help with food delivery to those in need and rides to testing and vaccination centers.
We now are seeing some positive movement in many cities. The momentum is accelerating. For example, in Phoenix, all transit employees across the Valley could register online and get their vaccination at a special clinic for transit and postal workers. Similar opportunities are happening in Nassau County (Long Island, N.Y.). In Boston, school bus drivers also now have access to vaccine appointments.
Yet, we need to keep up the effort. Our vaccine advocacy can’t stop here. In states and cities that are moving more slowly, we need to continue to encourage elected officials to prioritize our frontline staff, who have valiantly provided service during the entire pandemic, and continue to do so.
At Transdev, we have been relentless in our health and safety messaging – including a focus on reminding our teams that vaccines provide yet another way to stay safe at work. And that masks, social distancing and hand sanitizing remain key.
Let’s all continue to prioritize and advocate for the health and safety of transit workers and honor the contributions they make to our communities across the country – during this pandemic and beyond.
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Laura J. Hendricks is CEO of Transdev U.S. Hendricks brings three decades of executive and managerial expertise to Transdev. Since joining Transdev in December 2019, Hendricks has demonstrated her strong drive for service quality, consistent execution and building client relationships grounded in trust and transparency.
Laura J. Hendricks | CEO, Transdev U.S.
A graduate of Xavier University, she was CEO of several companies including Paint Drop, Coach America and Merry Maids. She joined Transdev in 2019 as Director of Transit activities in the USA.
